250.Paragraph 3 inserts new subsections (6D), (6E) and (6F) into section 3 of the Gender Recognition Act to amend the evidence requirements for an application to the Panel.
251.As enacted, section 3(6)(a) of that Act requires people who apply to the Panel for a gender recognition certificate to submit a statutory declaration as to whether they are married or in a civil partnership. Submission of this evidence enables the Panel to determine whether to issue a full gender recognition certificate (for people who are not married or in a civil partnership) or an interim certificate (for people who are married or in a civil partnership).
252.New subsection (6D) requires applicants who are party to a protected Scottish marriage to include in their statutory declaration an additional declaration that they wish the marriage to continue after the issue of a full gender recognition certificate (if that is the case). It also requires the application to include either a “statutory declaration of consent” by the applicant’s spouse (which is a declaration that the spouse consents to the marriage continuing after the issue of a full gender recognition certificate), or a statutory declaration by the applicant that no such declaration of consent by the applicant’s spouse is included.
253.If an application to the Panel contains a statutory declaration of consent by the applicant’s spouse, new subsection (6E) requires the Panel to inform the spouse that an application has been made.
254.New subsection (6F) provides that applicants in a protected Scottish civil partnership must provide a statutory declaration as to where the civil partnership was registered.